SALEM — Oregonians have used the state’s $2.4 million digital COVID-19 vaccine card program only about 50,000 times, far less than people in Washington used their state’s app and at more than twice the cost.

Oregon released its vaccine card web application in late April, with fanfare, providing Oregonians with a method to obtain digital proof that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the form of a scannable QR code.

In theory, that meant people didn’t have to fear losing their paper vaccine card or fret about forgetting it at home, while businesses would have an easy and efficient way to confirm patrons’ vaccination status.

But whether Oregonians have decided they don’t need the digital card or simply haven’t heard it is available, it’s clear relatively few are opting to use it.

As of June 30, about 45,000 Oregonians had downloaded QR codes showing proof of vaccination a total of 50,730 times, with 6,000 repeat users. That amounts to one download for every approximately 83 Oregonians, and one download for every 63 Oregonians who have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.

That rate is nearly 11 times smaller than what Washington achieved about three months after it made digital vaccine cards available in October.

The difference in timing may have made all the difference.

By the time Oregon made the vaccine card web application available April 25, COVID-19 restrictions were already being lifted and the state and country were moving psychologically past the pandemic. That, said one national expert on immunization information tech systems, may explain why so few people went on to download a QR code.

“There was a little more of a COVID focus in the fall and a little bit less in early 2022,” said Mary Beth Kurilo, a senior director at the American Immunization Registry Association.

The Oregon Health Authority, which is responsible for the state’s application, agreed. Washington launched its vaccine card application during a surge in cases while Oregon did not, spokesperson Rudy Owens said in an email. The states also had different vaccine requirements when the tools launched.

Oregon officials say how many people actually use a state-issued digital vaccine card is not what matters most.

“The download rate isn’t something we are measuring as indicative of project success,” Owens said in an email.

Instead, Owens said, the agency focused on making the application accessible to as broad a swath of the population as possible, “intentionally” launching it slower than neighboring states as Oregon consulted with the community on how to make the roll out equitable and accessible.

Kurilo praised Oregon’s approach, saying it serves as a model for the kind of health equity focus other states should have. While it may have taken longer to get off the ground than vaccine cards in other states, the work Oregon put into making a digital vaccine card accessible to all puts the state in a good position if future COVID-19 surges prompt more restrictions or vaccine requirements.

“The solution Oregon built is a lasting one,” Kurilo said.

But if raw uptake is a measure of success, then Oregon’s program has performed abysmally compared to its neighbors to the north and south.

About three months after Washington’s October launch, the digital vaccine cards were downloaded 1 million times, or once for roughly every 7.7 residents of the state. As of July 1, Washingtonians had downloaded cards 1,250,000 times.

“I feel that having over 1 million downloads in less than a year speaks to success,” Washington Department of Health official Chris Baumgartner said in an emailed statement.

In California, 8.2 million people have so far downloaded QR codes proving vaccination status, out of a total population of 39 million. The state was among the earliest to launch a digital vaccine card, first made available in June 2021. It made the code supporting the web application available to other states for free.

“The rapid development and launch of (the vaccine card) was significant in increasing vaccination rates and kickstarting economic activity,” a spokesperson for California’s health agency said in an email.

To be sure, Oregon’s web app has been available less than three months, compared to the full year California’s has been open to the public and eight months Washington’s app has been available.

And yet, at the current rate of 200 to 300 new downloads per day, Oregon will still not come close to reaching those states’ download rates within comparable timeframes — despite having only slightly lower overall vaccination rates.

Oregon could see about 100,000 downloads eight months after launch and 136,000 one year after launch, if current trends continue.

Owens, the agency spokesperson, pointed to the web app’s availability in 13 languages and the fact it conforms with current standards on making websites accessible to people with different kinds of disabilities. About 1% of all downloads were in languages besides English.

“The goal with our tool was not to make it the most widely adopted method of sharing one’s COVID-19 vaccination status,” Owens said, “but rather to ensure that all individuals in Oregon had access to an easy, secure, digital copy of their COVID-19 vaccination record.”

The health authority spent extra time on the project to make sure it got thorough feedback about the app and to hold “community listening sessions and demonstrations” that influenced the project’s design and how the state talked to the public about it. The agency did not say whether it thought that work resulted in fewer downloads.

Washington’s digital vaccine card web launched in seven languages and is now available in 43. It is compliant with the same accessibility standards Oregon officials pointed to, a spokesperson for the state’s health agency said in an email. California’s app is available in eight languages.

At a cost of about $2,425,000, Oregon has so far paid about $48 for every QR code download. Washington’s project cost the state about $1,096,000, or 85 cents for each of the 1,287,281 downloads as of July 1.

To make a more direct comparison, Oregon will have paid $23 for every download eight months after launch, assuming downloads average 300 per day for the next six months. That would still mean Oregon paid 27 times as much per download as Washington.

Owens said Oregon’s web app has different features than Washington’s, though he did not specify which ones. Oregon’s My Electronic Vaccine Card page includes a link to a step-by-step instructional video for getting a QR code and provides contact information for people who need translation or have disabilities. Washington’s vaccine card page has none of that information.

Oregon used state employees and an outside consultant to develop, launch and maintain the app, and it “worked closely” with Washington and California to develop it. More than $1 million went to the firm, Deloitte Consulting, which charged as much as $350 an hour for the work.

Washington got a substantial assist from tech companies, including MITRE, Microsoft, Google and Apple, spokesperson Emily Fredenberg said in an email. The computer code those companies helped develop, Fredenberg said, was gifted to Oregon “for free.”